Investigator Michael Kelly said investigators verified several of LaFrance's claims before they arrested Novak and his fellow Queens paramedic and confessed accomplice, Scott Sherwood, last fall.

Novak is on trial in Sullivan County Court for first-degree murder and other crimes, accused of strangling Catherine and then burning down their Lava home to cover up the crime and collect insurance.

LaFrance told state police a worried Elise Hanlon, a lieutenant in the New York City Fire Department who was Sherwood's then-girlfriend and now wife, made several calls looking for Sherwood that morning. Sherwood had borrowed her red SUV. The two had made plans to travel upstate to attend a bat mitzvah.

Novak and Sherwood left their Glen Cove apartment sometime after 11 p.m. and returned around 7 a.m.

LaFrance told state police she eventually picked up and talked to Hanlon just as Novak and Sherwood were returning from the alleged murder. That's when Novak reputedly came into the apartment alone and told her, "It's done."

Kelly, who testified for portions of Thursday and Friday, said Hanlon called Sherwood at 6:28 a.m. and also called cellphones belonging to LaFrance and Novak, and the landline at the Glen Cove Apartment. Hanlon, who is scheduled to be a witness later in the trial, didn't know of the alleged plot. LaFrance told state police she told her what she knew of Sherwood's involvement some time afterward.

State police also found an E-ZPass record showing Hanlon's red Blazer SUV going through the lower level of the George Washington Bridge toll at 6:39 a.m. that Saturday morning. The toll is roughly a half hour from Novak's Glen Cove apartment.

Hanlon had an E-ZPass but it evidently wasn't displayed when the car went through the toll. Kelly said a camera took a picture of Hanlon's license plate. The plate was linked to Hanlon's E-ZPass account.

Kelly also testified Novak called Sherwood at 8:55 a.m. By that time, Catherine's Lutheran pastor had called about the fire, worried about Catherine and their two kids. Novak agreed to drive to Ferndale and talk to state police. Novak also called Sherwood's cellphone at 5:58 p.m. the same evening, less than an hour after Novak and LaFrance met with state police.

On Friday, Novak's attorney, Gary Greenwald, highlighted another telephone call from the morning of the fire. Novak placed a call to Catherine Novak's Lava home at 7:32 a.m., while the home still was burning, and handed the phone to his children to leave her a message.

"Does that strike you as curious?" Greenwald asked.

"Yes."

"Ever ask Paul about it?"

"I don't recall if we did."

Greenwald suggested Kelly didn't thoroughly investigate implausible aspects of LaFrance's story. For example, Greenwald questioned why the 6-foot-3 Novak would have to struggle for 45 minutes on the floor with the 5-foot-2 Catherine, and why he would stand over her for 15 minutes and wait as she took her last reflexive breaths.

He also suggested Novak could not have gone to the garage and got a blowtorch and set the curtains on fire from the outside as LaFrance described. The garage and shed were locked and the kitchen curtains were unreachable from the outside, he said.